By
Chrismael Marchand
Published on
Sep 17, 2024 at 7:26 p.m.
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We have been talking about it for years. And we should be talking about it for a few more months. The saga of the EPR in Flamanville (Manche) is indeed not over yet.
After a endless construction site started in 2007THE reactor 3e generation continues to fuel the chronicle while he has never been so close to going into production.
Two automatic stops
This final straight line, it is true, holds a good number of obstacles for EDF and its teams.
After authorization from fuel loading got the May 7, 2024 but which dragged on, the Flamanville EPR spent a whole summer waiting for the start of divergence operations, which have just experienced two automatic shutdowns. Would fate be cruel?
Are these stops normal? YES
This response is, in any case, the one hammered home by EDF after the first and then the second shutdown recorded respectively on September 4 and Monday September 16.
” The start-up of the EPR is a long and complex processwhich requires a lot of testing, trials, and this can lead to such shutdowns. More than 1,500 safety and security criteria must be checked, compared to 300 to 400 in an old-generation plant. In fact, this proves that the safety system is working well,” assumes the operator, whose statements are more or less the same as those of the ASN (Nuclear Safety Authority).
Automatic shutdowns can occur anywhere in the park, this is not specific to the EPR. There have been about ten this year. This clearly illustrates the measures taken for the safety of the reactor.
Is this still human error? NO
For this second stoppage in two weeks, human error seems to have been ruled out. “This time, we are talking about a material error.”informs Benoît Fidelin, president of the CLI (Local Information Commission).
The ASN is less categorical. “It is currently being investigated to understand why it stopped automatically,” the organization said.
“We are in contact with EDF. During the first shutdown, it was due to human error, EDF provided the elements and announced measures to ensure that this does not happen again. For this second shutdown, it will be the same.”
Should we be worried? NO
These new decisions will obviously fuel the news. anti-nuclear associations will have a field day demonstrating once again “the ineptitude of such a project”. And point out inherent safety risks.
While the first automatic shutdown was classified at level 1 on the INES scale (scale of nuclear and radiological events, graded from 0 to 7 in ascending order of severity), the ASN notes that “This event had no impact on the facilities, people or the environment.”
For his part, Benoît Fidelin, the president of the CLI, tries to defuse the situation.
This is a very controversial subject. There has been so much waiting that it has become almost irrational. The slightest delay or technical problem is subject to multiple interpretations, takes on a symbolic character, due to the history of this project. However, we must know how to keep reason.
Will there be more delay? JOKER
Should we still be concerned about a possible delay to the EPR? Postponed by three months to the beginning of Septembercan the schedule, in fact, still slip under the effect of these judgments in the middle of a divergence phase? At the ASN, we want to be rather confident.
When a test phase goes well, we don’t need to redo them all, we don’t start from scratch after the automatic stops.
However, EDF does not hide the fact that ” the activation of other automatic stops and the encounter of hazards remain probable until reaching the full power of the reactor”. Suffice to say that nothing is excluded.
The deadline of the end of autumn » considered for thecoupling to the national electricity grid Does she have lead in her wing? We’ll see.The next CLI general meetingWednesday September 25, could, in any case, provide some elements of an answer. The conditional tense remains in place, however…
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